| Author | Message | ||
     Matthias Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 216 Registered: 05-2005 |
Some time ago my wife and I had a tough bit. We were juggling a job with travel, elementary-aged kids, and an uncomfortable new job. The good news is we pulled through it and in the process developed more respect for each other and stronger relationship. During the tumult, I was struck by how certain songs were unlistenable. FOr example, I had always liked early Tori. Always thoughts China had such a beautiful soundscape and lyrically was quite clever. In my college days, I could sympathize with the character but that was it and that was fine. Well during the period described above, it came on shuffle on the ole ipod and not only could I empathize I was horrified at the realities of my life in that song. I turned it off. I could not bear to listen to what was undoubtedly the truth. Fast forward 9 months on and I was driving home listening to my ipod when it came on again. It still hurt to know how low we had been, but I could admire the song for afar once more. Not completely removed but from a distance. Anyone have a similar experience with music? | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1555 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think because a lot of songs(especially "hit" songs) are about relationships,boy/girl,love/hate etc you can read too much into the sentiments of a song and apply it to yourself. In the 80s I was friendly with a girl at college, we shared the same music tastes, and a couple of times her boyfriend, her and I would socialise. Anyway, she split with her boyfriend(he was very cut up about it), and we started going out pretty soon after. Probably the first night we went out together we were in my local pub and I guarantee you every song the DJ played was about relationship break ups, girl leaves boy. boy hates girl etc. I began to get paranoid thinking that the ex boyfriend was hiding somewhere and telling the DJ what to play. Of course, on reflection if I had been sitting in the pub with my mates I would not even have noticed the sentiments behind the songs. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1898 Registered: 03-2006 |
Golddigger by Kanye West..."I ain't sayin' she a golddigger, but you ain't see her hangin' out with no broke motherf-er"... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 596 Registered: 08-2006 |
After my wife and I split I went through a patch where Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me" was all I wanted to listen to. The mixture of rueful sarcasm and genuine sentiment was just potent as hell. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 423 Registered: 09-2006 |
Quite some time ago I mentioned my experience with the Frank Sinatra album "For Only the Lonely,"...the lyrics weren't as specific as some of the ones you mention, Rob, but playing it during that huge breakup was just absolutely too much to deal with...two songs and I was racing for the Open/Close button. However I strangely but happily had the absolute opposite reaction to another song, which I will elaborate upon in a moment... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 424 Registered: 09-2006 |
My "Don't Forget Me" song was a little item that rang so true to me that for a time it was my effing anthem: Rhett Miller's "Meteor Shower." First, an perhaps most importantly, I discovered the song right when my breakup was at its messiest and most excruciating. Secondly the lyrics were a perfect, plainspoken evocation of my feelings at the time. Thirdly, he sang it with aching intensity. Fourthly it was one of those songs that builds as it goes, so it truly was an anthem. I'd put it on as loud as I could and sang along lustily to a chorus that went: I cannot make light, I'm so burned out I know where you are I cannot believe this hurts so much I'm a falling star And it truly helped... | ||
| peter ward Member Username: Peter_ward Post Number: 29 Registered: 06-2005 |
Billy Bragg sitting in the bathtub until the water goes cold and every time he turns on the radio there's somebody singing a song about the two of us.. that was earlier of course.. you're always extra sensitized in times of crises/love. walk away renee i think. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1902 Registered: 03-2006 |
It's a cliche, but also very true, as cliches often are (which is also a cliche), that when you go through a bad breakup, every song on the radio seems to be about you. Even the crappiest ones: "Damn, Billy Ray Cyrus, how'd you get inside my head like that?". | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1364 Registered: 04-2005 |
I was not having a lot of romantic luck in the early and mid-'90s, and Richard Thompson's "I Misunderstood" seemed to be my theme song: "I thought she was saying good luck/she was saying goodbye." And I know what LK is talking about--after an especially painful breakup seven or eight years ago, I was in a supermarket and some typically maudlin MOR lost-love ballad came on and it really got to me. Luckily I didn't do anything stupid like run out and buy the single. Eventually, the self-pity gives way to bile and a song like Costello's "I Hope You're Happy Now" or Husker Du's "Never Talking to You Again" takes over as my theme song. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 58 Registered: 02-2007 |
Elliot Smiths's "I Didn't Understand" from XO. If I,m feeling down I lighten up a bit because nobody could be THAT down, but if I'm feeling OK that song makes me cry!! | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 180 Registered: 07-2006 |
i shouldn't listen to, but i do.... big star/whomever else - kangaroo blur - no distance left to run magnetic fields - deep sea diving suit spiritualized - broken heart | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 181 Registered: 07-2006 |
i forgot... james - tomorrow | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 628 Registered: 08-2004 |
Having helped split up the occasional marriage. Me & Mrs Jones by whoever, was everywhere. It's not that I can't listen to it but it rings true enough to make me feel uncomfortable. When you've had an argument with a loved one, it's impossible to get away from awkward reminders. On TV & radio it's like a conspiracy to provoke you further, the very subject of your falling out is jabbed in your eyes & ears until it finally blows over. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1477 Registered: 05-2005 |
Seasons in the sun - terry jacks. It reminds me of being a small boy in the 70's, even then this ditty depressed the hell out of me, i can't abide to hear it any ever again. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 253 Registered: 04-2005 |
Spence, Do you know Brel's far more bitter original "Le Moribond"? It is much more bleak and less 'saccharine'. Jack's (rose-tinted glasses) version might be all about saying goodbye to his loved ones, but Brel's is all about settling those outstanding scores. "Hey dear wife, I know all about your unfaithlessness..." | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1484 Registered: 05-2005 |
Andrew, no, I MUST hear Brel's version!!! Thanks! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 597 Registered: 01-2005 |
I went through a lot of break up songs when my marriage blew up in 1983. Shoot Out The Lights got a lot of airplay, as did Lou's Legendary Hearts, Kate and Anna McGarrigle's debut, Fun Boy Three's Tunnel Of Love and The Belle Stars hit Sign Of The Times was another. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 83 Registered: 05-2005 |
I feel like I'm going out on a limb here, bolstered by Spence's Terry Jacks revelation which I also subscribe to but have never shared with anyone.I thought I was the only lad in 1974 who was moved downward by that song ! I used to shed tears whenever I heard The Bee Gees "Run to me" and "First of May" in private. The fact that I could be moved by music this way at the age of 10 was something I found unsettling. The fact that there was an Alan Parker film called Melody on TV about that time which was about schoolkids in love and featured a Bee Gees soundtrack with those songs may be wrapped up in it. "He's too sensitive for his own good" was the general family consensus...and Morrisey & Marr and Forster & McLennan were still 10 years away... | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1700 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wilson, I have never heard the First of May by The Bee Gees. Strangely however I have heard it done by The Wolfe Tones, in amongst a bunch of Irish rebel rousing tunes. I have no idea why it was included by them, it seems like a fish out of water. Perhaps Padraig or XY knows the significance of this song, I'm guessing the date has some political meaning in Ireland? Note to self, no more political posts tonight  | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1567 Registered: 05-2005 |
First of May is international Labour Day Kevin. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1703 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ah, I should have related it to that Padraig, but thought it may have had some special significance to Irish history. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 84 Registered: 05-2005 |
Guys, That's so ironic and hilarious!The Bee Gees song is the polar opposite of anything like those two things, it's a sentimental, syrupy ballad song complete with lush strings, piano, acoustic strums and one or two bell "dings". It's got a wavering unpolished production typical of their early 70's stuff that gives it charm. No falsetto disco vibe, just a beautiful melody. Unashamedly sweet "school days" pop music. For anyone who happened to be 12 years old in the early 1970's and like most boys who saw this film (Melody, sometimes known as S.W.A.L.K.)at that age and at that time I completely fell for the lead girl in the film, Tracy Hyde. Weirdly, the film has a massive cult following. Cynics hate it. Go to Tracyhyde.com and read the guestbook. |